- Publisher’s Note: Hybrid Edition!
Hey, everyone …
Instead of a web-only “Firehose Friday,” this week, we’re sending out a complete email/social media edition … but we’ve got MORE content for you as well. More news stories. More opinion pieces. More audio/video links.
I don’t like going web-only EVERY Friday, but we do tend to find more content on Thursdays (personally, I think a lot of sites push more stuff out on Thursday so they can take three-day weekends).
Anyway, you can find all the extra stuff (it’s not sorted by content type) at:
https://news.rationalreview.com/archives/category/web-only
Enjoy.
Yes, we are a reader-supported publication! Yes, you are a reader! Yes, we have a link relating to those two things!
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend and we’ll be back to our normal size / format on Monday.
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Sudan Files Case Against UAE At Top UN Court Over “Complicity In Genocide”
Source: Barron’s
“Sudan has filed a case against the United Arab Emirates arguing that the Gulf state is complicit in genocide over its alleged support for Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the International Court of Justice announced Thursday. Khartoum contends the UAE is ‘complicit in the genocide on the Masalit (community in Sudan) through its direction of and provision of extensive financial, political, and military support for the rebel RSF militia,’ the ICJ said in a statement. ‘The United Arab Emirates fuels the rebellion and supports the militia that has committed the crime of genocide in West Darfur,’ the Sudan submission to the court said. The UAE has repeatedly denied supporting the RSF.” (03/06/25)
- Russia: Regime sues business it stole for moving some money out of its reach
Source: US News & World Report
“Russian prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against the owner of U.S.-owned Glavprodukt, a company seized by Moscow in October, accusing him of illegally withdrawing around $15.5 million from Russia over the last two years, the RBC news outlet reported. President Vladimir Putin decreed in October 2024 that Glavprodukt and other assets ultimately owned by U.S. company Universal Beverage and Leonid Smirnov be placed under the Russian state’s ‘temporary management,’ giving Moscow control over the running of the business. The General Prosecutor’s lawsuit, filed on March 5, contained no details, beyond naming the defendants as Smirnov, Universal Beverages and other companies. The RBC business daily, citing unnamed sources, said it was based on the allegation that Smirnov and the foreign companies controlled by him had moved around 1.38 billion roubles ($15.46 million) out of Russia from 2022 to 2024.” (03/06/25)
- Enes Kanter Freedom sounds alarm on China’s “war” warning
Source: New York Post
“Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom warned the U.S. on Wednesday after China vowed to ‘fight till the end’ against President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Tuesday, saying it was ready for any ‘type’ of war with the U.S. … Kanter Freedom, who has been outspoken for the last few years against the Chinese government, sounded the alarm about the threat in a post on X. … Kanter Freedom was one of the only NBA players to speak out against Chinese President Xi Jinping and the detention camps holding Uyghur Muslims. He also criticized the NBA for having a partnership with the NBA while the atrocities were occurring.” [editor’s note: It cost him his Boston Celtics roster spot (and cost the Celtics at least one championship! – SAT] (03/06/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/enes-kanter-freedom-sounds-alarm-chinas-war-warning-wake-up-america
- Study: Ancient humans made tools from animal bones 1.5 million years ago
Source: SFGate
“Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago. A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by around 1 million years. Researchers know that early people made simple tools from stones as early as 3.3 million years ago. The new discovery, published Wednesday in Nature, reveals that ancient humans ‘had rather more complex tool kits than previously we thought,’ incorporating a variety of materials, said William Harcourt-Smith, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the research.” (03/05/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/ancient-humans-made-tools-from-animal-bones-1-5-20204160.php
- Report: Trump planning to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to US
Source: Semafor
“The Trump administration is planning to roll back temporary legal protections for some 240,000 Ukrainian refugees, leaving them vulnerable to fast-track deportation, Reuters reported. The move to revoke the temporary resident status of the Ukrainians who fled to the US following Russia’s full-scale invasion could be expected as soon as April, the outlet reported. It comes amid a broader Trump administration crackdown which could see more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the US on temporary humanitarian parole programs during the Biden administration lose their legal protections.” (03/06/25)
- Freedom: Not Another Word for Things Left to Lose
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“‘What noted conservative advocates jailing people to prevent the spread of their ideas?“ If David Friedman’s The Machinery of Freedom was written nowadays, he could challenge readers to think of one who doesn’t.” (03/06/25)
- YIMBYism is an American legal tradition. Here’s how to revive it.
Source: Niskanen Center
by Rick Hills & David Schleicher“When ‘YIMBYs’ first appeared on the scene, it appeared to many as though they had come out of the blue. YIMBYism was a radical departure from the norm of American land use politics, in which the only groups involved were developers of specific projects, neighborhood groups opposed to growth, preservationists, and ‘housers’ interested in subsidized housing but without any interest — and some hostility — to broader housing growth. That there might be individuals and groups committed to increasing housing supply by reducing the strictness of land use controls on ideological groups was almost unthinkable. But it turns out YIMBYism is part of a long American tradition. From before the Founding through most of the 20th century, American property law promoted development, active use of land, broad ownership, and liquid property markets, far more than did the property law of our English forebearers.” (03/06/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/yimbyism-is-an-american-legal-tradition-heres-how-to-revive-it
- America’s Human Rights Crisis: Prison Slavery
Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato“Why does American society remain so deeply implicated in the enslavement of Black Americans? Slavery was never abolished in the United States, and today it enjoys widespread support among both Republicans and Democrats. Almost 800,000 people are subject to the conditions of prison slavery, but this estimate is almost certainly low, as the lack of reliable data means that it ‘excludes people confined in local jails or detention centers, juvenile correctional facilities, and immigration detention facilities.’ This system, supported and perpetuated by both halves of the ruling class, is an extension of the country’s history of racism and chattel slavery, a way to reinstitute slavery within a legal framework that loudly insists it has been abolished.” (03/06/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/06/americas-human-rights-crisis-prison-slavery/
- Tariffs? Not on that! (Yet.) You’re fired! Oops, you’re rehired. Trump is all chaos.
Source: USA Today
by Rex Huppke[W]e wanted to let you know things are going swimmingly and YOUR president is leading with great consistency and stability. Consider tariffs. WE LOVE TARIFFS! That’s why on Tuesday we put 25% tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian imports. BIG, STRONG TARIFFS. We hit them hard, and showed the world we are resolute and tough. Well, we did until Wednesday, when we issued a one-month tariff exemption on automobiles. BUT ONLY FOR A MONTH. After that, we will definitely fully tariff everything that is tariff-able. We do not equivocate and we will not bend. … We are tough and immovable and nobody will mess with us, but we might do something in the middle. We’re not exactly sure where the middle is, but rest assured, we will go there strongly. Maybe.” (03/06/25)
- Trump may have already planted the seeds of his political collapse
Source: The Hill
by Matt K Lewis“Over the last six weeks, President Trump has been spending political capital like a drunk at a casino who insists he’s got ‘a system.’ If history is any predictor, his second term trajectory may already be set — right off a cliff, pedal to the floor. Too soon to say that? Consider former President Joe Biden, who, in his first weeks in office, reversed Trump’s border policies and unleashed another flood of pandemic relief cash. These moves ultimately helped create his two biggest political headaches: a migrant crisis and runaway inflation so bad that even Dollar Tree had to raise its prices. Then Biden made it worse by shrugging the problems off. … Now it’s Trump’s turn to step on a rake. His approval ratings just went underwater, meaning he hit this particular milestone even faster than Biden.” (03/06/25)
- President Trump Should Keep the Subminimum Wage
Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne & Sophia Bagley“President Trump’s decision to suspend all pending Biden-era federal regulations means his administration can decide which aspects to keep and which to discard. One change that he should scrap altogether is former President Biden’s attempt to eliminate the subminimum wage. The subminimum wage allows certain employers to pay workers with significant cognitive, developmental, and physical disabilities below the hourly federal minimum wage. … Like it or not, individuals with severe disabilities will always be on the margins of the labor market. Big minimum wage spikes, like those suggested by the Biden administration with its proposal to abolish subminimum wages, would result in significant job loss and reduced labor force participation for these disabled workers. The effects on the quality of life for the workers and their families could be devastating.” (03/06/25)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/president-trump-should-keep-subminimum-wage
- Trump’s Demented Gaza Threats
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“In a statement addressed ‘to the People of Gaza,’ President Trump warned on Wednesday that ‘A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!’ Again, this was explicitly addressed to the entirety of Gaza’s population, not only to Hamas. US presidents kill civilians all the time, but it’s highly unusual for them to explicitly threaten a civilian population with extermination in a statement addressed directly to them …. At the same time, Israel is reportedly preparing a ‘hell plan’ in which it will resume its genocidal onslaught and cut Gaza off from electricity and water if Hamas refuses to accept Israel’s revised terms for the ceasefire deal in the coming days. The plan to cut off water is especially terrifying, as it would lead to mass civilian deaths relatively quickly.” (03/06/25)
- Trump’s Economic Trainwreck
Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin“After two days of watching the markets tank, President in Name Only Donald Trump’s lackeys began to talk about a ‘compromise’ on his wrongheaded, disastrous rollout of steep across-the-board tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China. This is a common Trump stunt: Make a boneheaded move, watch the fierce blowback, make a meaningless deal, and declare victory. In this case, the ‘compromise’ appears to include a one-month reprieve from tariffs for automakers. However, after the one-month pause, those tariffs apparently will go into effect. No such relief was offered for other goods. Whatever wiggle room Trump provides, the damage is done. Markets, businesses, and consumers are rattled. … Why does he needlessly make such objectively self-destructive moves? His tariffs certainly cannot be justified economically, and the predictable results are so severe, they make even less political sense.” (03/06/25)
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trumps-economic-trainwreck
- Modern Life Is Ruining Storytelling
Source: Persuasion
by Heather Parry“Writers are often so keen to be good at something, to be artistic, that we forget the basics. We forget that writing is a method of communication, and unless you’re being unclear for a very specific reason that will eventually reveal itself, in communication, clarity is key. When it comes to first attempts at literary fiction, though, there’s often a different issue. That issue is that nothing fucking happens in it. When I started writing short stories I had excellent free mentoring from much-lauded Glasgow writer Kirsty Logan. The most irritating but insightful thing she would say to me, when I presented her with my stories, was this: ‘What is this story about?’ And more often than not, I didn’t know. The problem was that I had all these ideas, but the ideas were situations; they were not stories.” (03/06/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/modern-life-is-ruining-storytelling
- As a lifelong Dem, I never thought I’d see my party embarrass itself so much
Source: New York Post
by Robert Holden“As a lifelong Democrat, I never imagined I would watch my own party embarrass itself so thoroughly — and so publicly — as it did during Tuesday’s joint session of Congress. From obnoxious booing to childish protest signs to a sitting member of Congress having to be physically removed from the chamber, Democrats turned what should have been a solemn, dignified event into a bad reality show. … Nothing was more disgraceful than when my colleagues refused to stand or clap when 13-year-old DJ Daniel, a brain cancer survivor, was made an honorary Secret Service agent.” (03/05/25)
- Nice Hypothesis You Got There, Walter …
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson“[L]et’s take a look at a quote from Ludwig von Mises, in Epistemological Problems of Economics: ‘If a contradiction appears between a theory and experience, we must always assume that a condition pre-supposed by the theory was not present, or else there is some error in our observation.’ … according to Mises — whom Walter [Block], as a devout Austrian economist, presumably reveres — there’s a direct contradiction between the claim that wages are determined by marginal productivity and the associated prediction that minimum wage increases will cause unemployment, and the empirical observation that a $20 minimum wage increase did not, in fact, increase unemployment. The clear implication, as Mises put it, is that ‘a condition pre-supposed by the theory was not present.'” (03/06/25)
- What You See Determines What You Get: Israeli Edition
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman“Offer a new far-right party as an alternative to the current government, and the entire political spectrum shifts sharply to the right.” (03/06/25)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/what-you-see-is-what-you-get-israeli
- Solidarity Lessons: Western MA Stands With Smith College Students for “Justice in Palestine”
Source: Common Dreams
by Jennifer Scarlott & Nick Mottern“Even before the extraordinary activism for an end to the genocide in Gaza and the liberation of the Palestinian people at Columbia University last spring, the students of Smith Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, set a high bar for the coming wave of campus unrest across the U.S. with their 11-day occupation of College Hall, Smith’s administration building. For us as residents of Northampton, Massachusetts, it was awe-inspiring to watch Smith students’ activism as those first days passing sleeping bags through the windows of College Hall turned into weeks and months of creative actions demanding the school’s administration end its complicity in genocide. Outdoor student and faculty teach-ins in the snow and mud of early spring set the stage for ongoing pro-Palestine cultural and political education events as the lush grounds of the college responded to the lengthening days and warming temperatures.” (03/06/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/community-support-student-activists
- How Ukraine can Survive Without America
Source: Washington Monthly
by Mike Lofgren“[In 1939] Czech president Emil Hacha was summoned to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler and his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, threatened him in tag team fashion: hand over your country to us, or we will bomb it to rubble. The main difference between Trump’s and Vance’s behavior is that they demanded Zelensky deliver Ukraine to a third country, Vladimir Putin’s Russia. That might appear to be the beginning of the end of Ukraine’s brave resistance against the neo-imperialism of Russia, just as Czechoslovakia, abandoned by Britain and France, disappeared into the darkness. But this is a potential illusion fostered by American parochialism, a self-centered and provincial view of the world that is held, above all, by right-wingers who believe the rest of the world only exists at our sufferance, but to some degree also by many liberals who oppose them.” (03/06/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/06/how-ukraine-can-survive-without-america/
- Tariffs are Pushing Our Neighbors — and Prosperity — Away
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert“Imagine that a longtime friend complains that you’ve repeatedly tracked mud into his house and threatens to trash your house in return. You endeavor to wipe your feet, perhaps even taking your shoes off altogether, yet the threats continue. Eventually, you have to question the friendship. This is where the US stands with Canada and Mexico, our closest trade partners, as the threat of tariffs continues to erode generations of economic goodwill. Despite both Canada and Mexico attempting to accede to US demands, they are now faced with renewed saber-rattling. While both countries will likely try to placate, it is becoming clear that both countries have begun questioning the role they want the US to play in their economies.” (03/06/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/tariffs-are-pushing-our-neighbors-and-prosperity-away/
- Making corruption great again
Source: Washington Post
by Eduardo Porter“Americans will push back against the argument that the United States is just another corrupt country. Sure, they might say, private interests buy political influence. Still, the use of money to sway government action is constrained by rules and laws. It’s different from the opaque, under-the-table dealing that prevails in the kleptocracies of the developing world. That argument is increasingly out of date. America’s good-governance metrics have slipped significantly over the past decade. Last year, its score on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index fell four points, to 65 out of 100. That is down from a score of 76 in 2015.” (03/06/25)
- The Political Orphanage, 03/06/25
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Your Kids and The Department of Education.” (03/06/25)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/your-kids-and-the-department-of-education
- The Libertarian Angle, 03/06/25
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Implosion at the White House.” (03/06/25)
- Quillette Podcast, episode 275
Source: Quillette
“Christianity and the American Polity.” (03/06/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/03/06/podcast-274-christianity-and-th-american-polity/
- The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, 03/06/25
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Press Sec Accidentally Blurts Out Real Goal of His Tariff Scam.” (03/06/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/192391/trump-press-sec-accidentally-reveals-ugly-scam-behind-tariffs
- Capital Record, episode 217
Source: National Review
“Business Is a Legacy.” (03/06/25)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/business-is-a-legacy/
- Agorist Nexus Podcast, episode 165
Source: Agorist Nexus
“Agorist Monero Markets with Douglas Tuma.” (03/06/25)
https://www.agoristnexus.com/agorist-monero-markets-with-douglas-tuman-165/